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Monday, 6 July 2015

Alien Life On Philae Comet, Scientists Say

I'm sorry but this is quite explosive but it just gets a short Yahoo news item! Prof. Wickramasinghe is no new, clean shaven fella out to make a name for himself. Along with Sir Fred Hoyle he wrote the excellent Diseases From Space (1979), Evolution From Space (1981) and Life On Mars? (1997) along with many other books.

How ridiculous that organisations who send probes out into space to "learn" bicker over money and decide not to equip probes with something that might just show us that there is 100% "life out there!"

Evidence of alien life is "unequivocal" on the comet carrying the Philae probe through space, two leading astronomers have said.

The experts say the most likely explanation for certain features of the
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko comet, such as its organic-rich black crust,
is the presence of living organisms beneath an icy surface.
Rosetta, the European spacecraft orbiting the comet, is also said to
have picked up strange "clusters" of organic material that resemble
viral particles.

But neither Rosetta nor its lander probe, Philae, are equipped to
search for direct evidence of life after a proposal to include this in
the mission was allegedly dismissed.

Astronomer and astrobiologist Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe, who was
involved in planning for the mission 15 years ago, said: "I wanted to
include a very inexpensive life-detection experiment. At the time it was
thought this was a bizarre proposition."

He and colleague Dr Max Wallis, from the University of Cardiff, believe
67P and other comets like it could provide homes for living microbes
similar to the "extremophiles" that inhabit the most inhospitable
regions of the Earth.

They say comets may have helped to sow the seeds of life on Earth and
possibly other planets such as Mars early in the solar system's
existence.

Philae failed to attach itself to the surface of Comet 67P after being
dropped by mothership Rosetta in November, and bounced several times
before landing in the shade.

After being forced into hibernation by the lack of sunlight reaching its solar panels, scientists were euphoric when it began "waking up"
as the comet raced towards the sun. It is currently about 176.7 million
miles from Earth and travelling at more than 73,000 mph.

It has a black hydrocarbon crust overlaying ice, smooth icy "seas", and
flat-bottomed craters containing "lakes" of re-frozen water overlain
with organic debris.

Prof Wickramasinghe said: "What we're saying is that data coming from
the comet seems to unequivocally, in my opinion, point to
micro-organisms being involved in the formation of the icy structures,
the preponderance of aromatic hydrocarbons, and the very dark surface.

"These are not easily explained in terms of pre-biotic chemistry.

"The dark material is being constantly replenished as it is boiled off
by heat from the Sun. Something must be doing that at a fairly prolific
rate."

Another tantalising find was the discovery of organic "particle clusters" by Rosetta in the gases surrounding the comet, which resembled viral particles collected from the Earth's upper atmosphere.

"They might be viral particles," said Prof Wickramasinghe.

"The current estimate for the number of extra-solar planets in the
galaxy is 140 billion plus. Planets that can harbour life are really
quite abundant in the galaxy, and the next neighbouring system to us is
only spitting distance away. I think it's inevitable that life is going
to be a cosmic phenomenon.

"Five hundred years ago it was a struggle to have people accept that
the Earth was not the centre of the universe. After that revolution our
thinking has remained Earth-centred in relation to life and biology.

"It's deeply ingrained in our scientific culture and it will take a lot of evidence to kick it over."